Saturday in Most Part 1 – Pole for Hahn

02. September 2017Most - Following a very wet Friday, with its practice sessions and the parade into town, the first race day of the 6th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Autodrom Most in the west of the Czech Republic began under a clouded sky with temperatures only just pushing double digits – but, crucially, it was dry. The lap times in second free practice (the first session took place late afternoon yesterday) were around 20 seconds lower. Home hero Adam Lacko and his compatriot, Buggyra teammate, and twice champ David Vršecký were the early pacemakers and only German Jochen Hahn seemed to be able to keep up. The reigning champion in his new Iveco succeeded in inserting himself between the two Czechs, but he was nevertheless eight tenths slower than Lacko.
In qualifying the film of moisture that had clung to the asphalt earlier was gone entirely, and the lap times tumbled like dominoes. Somewhat surprisingly, MAN pilotess Steffi Halm was quickest in 2:02.254, the rest not significantly slower than the young German. Hungarian Norbert Kiss took three tenths more for his flying lap in the tankpool24 Mercedes, followed by MAN pilot Antonio Albacete (ESP) and Hahn with almost identical time differences. This meant only five tenths separated Hahn from Halm.
They were back in pit lane after that single lap in the interest of tyre conservation, joined presently by Lacko, Vršecký, Germans Sascha Lenz (MAN) and Gerd Körber (Iveco), and the Portuguese José Rodrigues – there being no perceived threat of them being thrust out of the top 10, the time differences to the rest were simply too great. The final Super Pole slot was contested till the very end, Brit Ryan Smith (MAN) claiming 10th in a last-gasp effort.
Mercedes pilot André Kursim had rolled off on the main straight with a mechanical failure, and it took quite a while till his truck could be recovered. The field was kept waiting in parc fermé conditions, with no work on the trucks allowed, till Super Pole could get underway.
Kiss wasn’t quite as fast this time round as Steffi Halm, but still drove the quickest lap, a 2:02.409. Lacko was only four hundredths slower and Hahn a tenth, followed by Albacete and Halm a tenth each further down. Once again only three tenths separated the leader from the man in 4th.
The first flying lap is customarily followed by a slower, cooling-off lap before the trucks can go flat out again without fear of running out of brakes. While almost no-one could improve their times, Hahn apparently found the perfect raceline around the circuit to blaze to the top of the timing monitor with a 2:02.074, the best lap of the weekend by some – his pole advantage at the end was more than three tenths.
Steffi Halm was followed by Smith in 6th, Vršecký, Lenz, Körber, and José Rodrigues.

Impressions: